Evening Brief: Monday, January 12, 2015

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Canadian proponents of a national inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women got a boost from another authoritative international voice today. Joining the United Nations’ and Amnesty International’s similar calls, a report from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an arm of the Organization of American States, says an inquiry or national action plan is needed to get at the root of the problem. “The IACHR considers that there is much more to understand and to acknowledge in relation to the missing and murdered indigenous women,” the report said. “This initiative must be organized in consultation with indigenous peoples, particularly indigenous women, at all stages.”

There’s a bevy of federal Tory ministers headed to the annual global policy confab at Davos next week, all armed with arguments for the absolute necessity of closing the deal on the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement between Canada and the EU. Our trade expert BJ Siekierski reports.

Further south, in the 2016 race, a fascinating tidbit you may have missed on the weekend. Democratic pollster Peter Hart ran a focus group for the Annenberg School and the responses “turned upside down much of the conversation about the coming presidential campaign, where [Jeb] Bush and [Hillary] Clinton occupy so much space,” wrote The Washington Post’s veteran political scribe Dan Balz. The session’s unexpected take-away: 1. Dynasties are distasteful. 2. Elizabeth Warren is the real deal.